Plants

Plant Pests

General Information

Microscopic pathogens and submicroscopic pathogens and insects in the environment can cause significant damage to plants. Managing these plant pests requires a multi-pronged approach.

To manage plant health problems, it is important to identify the causal agents accurately. This helps determine the appropriate laboratory tests to be conducted to get information on the possible causal agents and final diagnosis. Diagnosis based on symptoms alone is risky and inaccurate.

To identify the causal agent accurately, sufficient information from the grower is needed on:

healthy versus unhealthy plants

presence of possible agents responsible for problem

growing conditions

growing practices

Observations for Growers

Growers can take note of these questions when a plant health problem arises:

What are the characteristics, appearance and growth habits of the healthy plant?

How does the plant normally appear when grown under various conditions (indoor vs outdoor)

On Unhealthy Plants

What are the symptoms of the affected plant? What were the initial symptoms? When did the symptoms first occur?

What are the plant parts affected?

Are symptoms present only on exposed plant surfaces or also on protected, covered tissues such as unexpanded or unopened flowers?

Where is the distribution of the symptoms (only one side of the plant, only on older or new leaves, only one plant affected)?

How rapidly do early symptoms change into advanced ones?

How long have the symptoms been present?

Is a particular growth stage associated with the problem?

On the Surrounding Environment

Have there been any unusual weather patterns, changes or developments recently (past weeks or months)?

Is there any evidence of stress factors (temperature extremes, water stress or excess, salt buildup, pollution, wind or other mechanical damage)?

Has the soil been exposed to these stress factors as well?

What type of fertilisers have you applied?

How often & how much do you water the plant? How does the water drain off the site?

Did the onset of symptoms correspond with any new cultural practice?

Common Plant Pests

Insects are a type of plant pests. They cause damage to plants from their feeding or during the course of completing their life cycles on the plants. Farm sanitation and good agricultural practices can prevent or reduce the spread of infestation.

Control Measures for Plant Diseases

Methods for control of plant diseases and pests vary depending on:

plants

pests

causal agents

Control measures should be applied to entire plant beds or garden patch rather than just an individual plant. Damage and loss to one or a few plants are insignificant compared to the population. In most infectious disease incidents, curing the disease is difficult once it has set in. Thus almost all methods are aimed at preventing and protecting against attacks.

Integrated Pest Control Strategy

The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a an integrated pest and disease control strategy that combines the appropriate use of various control methods. In IPM, pesticides are used as the last resort and the proliferation of beneficial insects is encouraged.

Step 1

Physical Barriers of planting within a netted structure to exclude pests

Step 2

Follow good cultural and agronomic practices to keep vegetables and plants in good health. This ensures that they would not be susceptible to diseases and pest attacks.

Step 3

Add sticky traps (yellow or blue sticky boards). They are non-chemical means of reducing the incidental pests within the structures.

Plant Health & Pest Management

Are you using a compatible browser?

Our Feedback Form is best displayed on Internet Explorer (IE) 11 and above, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. If you are using any of these browsers, click “OK” and you will be directed to the Feedback Form.

For users on IE 10 and below, you will encounter an error message. You are required to change your Internet Settings before you can access the Feedback Form. Please refer to the step-by-step guide on changing your Internet Settings.